Many types of engines often require a large supply of clean air to ensure maximum engine performance and engine life and to reduce maintenance requirements. Air cleaning systems have been developed for some types of engines which will remove 99% of the particulate matter drawn into the air intake system. Such high efficiency air cleaning systems are multi-stage units which include barrier type air filters. However, a simple dust leak in the air cleaning system (caused by, for example, accidental perforation of one of the air filters) can negate the effectiveness of the system. In addition, problems with excessively dusty air may be encountered in other types of applications where barrier filters cannot be employed, such as gas turbine engines.
A typical gas turbine engine generally includes, in serial flow order, a compressor section, a combustion section, a turbine section and an exhaust section. In operation, air enters an inlet of the compressor section where one or more axial or centrifugal compressors progressively compress the air until it reaches the combustion section. Fuel is mixed with the compressed air and burned within the combustion section to provide combustion gases. The combustion gases are routed from the combustion section through a hot gas path defined within the turbine section and then exhausted from the turbine section via the exhaust section.
Such gas turbine engines are commonly employed in an aircraft. During operation of the aircraft, the engine environmental particulate and dust ingestion level is a key input to the analytics process, resulting in specific engine-by-engine action. Current environmental dust/particulate level data is provided by ground-based and remote sensing systems separate from the aircraft. Such data has temporal and special variations as well as error, thereby making accurate assessment of engine conditions at takeoff and climb of the aircraft particularly difficult. On the other hand, if sensors are mounted on the engine, the electronics of such sensor systems are typically connected to the individual sensors via a plurality of long cables and connectors. In this case, any motion or vibration of the cabling can produce more signal than the dust particles passing the sensor face, thereby resulting in a poor signal-to-noise ratio. These spurious signals are due to triboelectric and piezoelectric effects of the cables and connectors.
Accordingly, the present disclosure is directed to an improved sensor system that addresses the aforementioned issues. More specifically, the present disclosure is directed to a sensor assembly that includes one or more improved electrostatic sensors having integrated electronics and/or shorter cable connections that more accurately detects dust particles and/or particulates.